As I mentioned in an earlier post, when I first moved to Chattanooga, I took a job living at a motel and worked in exchange for my room. I may have sought other work when I first arrived, but my decision to take the job at the motel was twofold: One, it was meant to help me to better understand the vulnerable populations in Chattanooga by living among them, so that Two, I could determine how to better help them challenge a rampant spread of HIV/AIDS contagion in the U.S. South. Although I have been exposed to impoverished people through previous community work in the Greater Detroit area, there were definitely some obvious cultural differences between them and those I learned from and lived with in Chattanooga.
In April 2001, I became an ordained minister and took a vow to do missionary work among the most vulnerable populations in society. Although I thought that HIV/AIDS would be my area of concentration, after living among the transient people in Chattanooga, I changed my focus in my Ph.D. program to homeless people, who are at risk not only for HIV/AIDS, but also for many other public health adversities. My capstone project at Walden University for my doctorate included designing an NIH-based grant proposal for funding to help create a bridge program that would blend homelessness with domestic violence, since the local area did not really have a homeless service for domestic violence, nor did the domestic violence shelter have intervention strategies that could accommodate the homeless.
I moved to Red Bank after that and endeavored to become involved in community work, which I did, including volunteer work. Each of these volunteer activities are chronicled in some way in direct relation to field-based classes at Walden University. In each class the product of the assignments were translated into measureable and explainable data and analysis. No private information about anyone involved in these projects was disclosed without a reason and express permission to do so.
* Chattanooga Cares (HIV/AIDS), working health fairs in at-risk neighborhoods and at the University of Tennessee Chattanooga.
*The Urban League of Chattanooga, where I did pro-bono work by developing a program of computer training classes to help assist job-seekers who were unfamiliar with computer-driven job applications
*The Boys and Girls Club, where I worked with children living in public housing to develop artistic ways to positively express themselves including photo-mosaics of our sidewalk chalk event, posters with positive messages, and creative decorations to make their gathering place reflect their positivity through individual expressions.
*ACT-SO program through the Chattanooga Chapter of the NAACP by serving as a judge in the categories of poetry, essay writing, and playwriting for the last two years.
*Clarence T. Jones Observatory, associated with the University of Tennessee Chattanooga, to help encourage students' interest in science by acting both as a presenter and a hostess for public open nights of sky viewing.
*University of Tennessee Chattanooga, I coordinated and presented information to the campus population, as well as the community at-large to help inform them about the Extreme Toxic Waste spill that took place in Kingston, TN, approximately 50 miles upstream from Chattanooga. I was able to retain the Director of the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation as a guest speaker who responded to questions and concerns, especially from the Society of Physics Students (SPS) who sponsored our event, and a large number of Environmental Science staff and students.
*Homelessness remained a major interest to me, and I am currently working with a long-time (or contronically homeless) individual who is writing about her personal experiences. I have already published an article on the Walden University blog on how to organize a community collaborated public lecture and gain press coverage and resource information for continued interest. (Over 100,000 current students in the International Laurate have access to these articles).
One of the things I realized with my higher education knowledge is that whether or not I am paid a wage for my work, I can still always contribute to my community and focus on the vulnerable populations I care so much about. Although I do still have in my mind the priority of HIV/AIDS as an ongoing problem, my work in the community helped me to realize that one issue alone will not address the companion issues that co-occur in public health. I am also working on another website, being done in conjunction with a former University of Phoenix Masters student, who is also an MD, so that we can present HIV/AIDS information to people about the virus, the disease, the modes of transmission, testing and screening, and where to turn for assistance and more information, peer-to-peer counseling resource lists and treatment and family response information. That website is still being crafted and is in research and redesign stages of presentation. We intend the website to be dynamic, updating our audience on the latest in medical technologies, the law and policies related to HIV/AIDS in America, and to create a forum for people to be able to become engaged in dialogue with others interested in this pandemic, either personally or professionally at local, state, national or international levels.
I look forward to seeing what my future will bring as I move forward in social activism, environmental activism, producing educational material for health, homeschool or family enhancement of student preparedness for higher education, and publishing more children's stories.
About the Author: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/nancy-bell/30/231/855
